Pete Chisman

Last updated

Pete Chisman
Personal information
Full name Peter Chisman
Nickname Chis
Born(1940-09-08)8 September 1940
United Kingdom
Died 23 October 2003(2003-10-23) (aged 63)
Amateur team(s)
Houghton Wheelers
Professional team(s)
19661971 Raleigh BMB
Major wins
1963 Tour of Britain

Peter Chisman (8 September 1940 – 23 October 2003) was a British racing cyclist who won the Tour of Britain - known then as the Milk Race - in 1963. He led the race from beginning to end.

Tour of Britain multi-stage cycling race conducted on British roads

The Tour of Britain, known as the Ovo Energy Tour of Britain for sponsorship purposes, is a multi-stage cycling race, conducted on British roads, in which participants race across Great Britain to complete the race in the fastest time.

Biography

Peter Chisman was born in Durham, England on 8 September 1940.[ citation needed ]

Durham, England City in England

Durham is a historic city and the county town of County Durham in North East England. The city lies on the River Wear, to the west of Sunderland, south of Newcastle upon Tyne and to the north of Darlington. Founded over the final resting place of St Cuthbert, its Norman cathedral became a centre of pilgrimage in medieval England. The cathedral and adjacent 11th-century castle were designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986. The castle has been the home of Durham University since 1832. HM Prison Durham is also located close to the city centre. City of Durham is the name of the civil parish.

England Country in north-west Europe, part of the United Kingdom

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to the west and Scotland to the north-northwest. The Irish Sea lies west of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south. The country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain, which lies in the North Atlantic, and includes over 100 smaller islands, such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight.

Pete Chisman was known to friends as Chis. He started his career by winning his first race, a cyclo-cross near Durham. He rode on a bike borrowed from a friend. That led him to join the Houghton Wheelers club when he was 14. He won six races in 1958, including the junior road race championship of north-east England. He won 12 single-day races and a four-day race in 1960. His amateur wins included the Tour of the Lakes, the White Rose two-day and the Red Rose two-day.

Cyclo-cross bicycle sport

Cyclo-cross is a form of bicycle racing. Races typically take place in the autumn and winter, and consist of many laps of a short course featuring pavement, wooded trails, grass, steep hills and obstacles requiring the rider to quickly dismount, carry the bike while navigating the obstruction and remount. Races for senior categories are generally between 30 minutes and an hour long, with the distance varying depending on the ground conditions. The sport is strongest in the traditional road cycling countries such as Belgium, France and the Netherlands.

He was picked in 1961 for the North of England team in the Milk Race. He won two stages and finished fourth. That brought him promotion to the England team in 1963. He won five stages, including the first, and wore the yellow jersey of race leader from beginning to end.

He turned professional in 1966 for Raleigh-BMB with Arthur Metcalfe, John Aslin, Bernard Burns and George Shaw and started the Tour de France the following year. But he never had the same success as he had enjoyed as an amateur and he stopped racing in 1971. He worked as a civil engineer for local councils. Throughout his racing life he was a member of Houghton Wheelers apart from a brief period with Cheviot CC.

Raleigh Bicycle Company

The Raleigh Bicycle Company is a British bicycle manufacturer based in Nottingham, England. Founded by Woodhead and Angois in 1885, who used Raleigh as their brand name, it is one of the oldest bicycle companies in the world. After being acquired by Frank Bowden, it became The Raleigh Cycle Company in December 1888, which was registered as a limited liability company in January 1889. By 1913, it was the biggest bicycle manufacturing company in the world. From 1921 to 1935, Raleigh also produced motorcycles and three-wheel cars, leading to the formation of Reliant Motors. The Raleigh division of bicycles is currently owned by the Dutch corporation Accell.

Arthur Metcalfe was a British racing cyclist who twice rode the Tour de France and, as an amateur remains the only male rider to win the British road race championship and the British Best All-Rounder (BBAR) time trial competition in the same year.

Tour de France Cycling competition

The Tour de France is an annual men's multiple stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours, it consists of 21 day-long stages over the course of 23 days.

Chisman never stopped cycling, sometimes riding 180 miles a day. Eight weeks before his death he rode 130 miles from Sunderland to Edinburgh to visit his grandchildren. It took him eight hours.

Edinburgh Capital city in Scotland

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian, it is located in Lothian on the Firth of Forth's southern shore.

Chisman died in hospital in Sunderland on 23 October 2003 after a prostate operation [1] His racing companion, Dave Thornton, said at his funeral:

We have come to pay our respects to a champion, but more than that, to a modest champion, a quiet unassuming sportsman in the true sense of the word, a true gentleman who was universally respected and liked. Peter will not be forgotten, he will be remembered around the table in our favourite 'tea-stops', as he was last Sunday, and he will be with us in spirit in the high hills, where he battled it out with the best. [2]

Related Research Articles

Tom Simpson professional cyclist

Thomas Simpson was one of Britain's most successful professional cyclists. He was born in Haswell, County Durham and later moved to Harworth, Nottinghamshire. Simpson began road cycling as a teenager before taking up track cycling, specialising in pursuit races. He won a bronze medal for track cycling at the 1956 Summer Olympics and a silver at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games.

Hans Junkermann German racing cyclist

Hennes "Hans" Junkermann is a retired German professional racing cyclist who won 35 road races in 18 seasons from 1956 to 1973. He won the German National Road Race in 1959, 1960 and 1961.

Malcolm Elliott English cyclist

Malcolm Elliott is a former English professional cyclist, whose professional career has lasted from 1984 to 1997 when he retired and from 2003 up to 2011 when he made his comeback in British domestic racing.

Kristian House English racing cyclist

Kristian House is a British former racing cyclist who rode for the JLT–Condor team from 2008 to 2015, and joined ONE Pro Cycling in 2016. He was the 2009 British Road Race Champion. He has raced in Europe and Australia. He rode for Great Britain in UCI World Cup track events. In 2006, he rode for the Recycling.co.uk team and in 2007 he signed for Navigators Insurance.

Seamus Elliott Irish racing cyclist

Seamus 'Shay' Elliott was an Irish road bicycle racer, Ireland's first major international rider, with a record comparable only to Sean Kelly and Stephen Roche. He was the first Irish person to ride the Tour de France, first to win a stage, and first to wear the yellow jersey, and first English speaker to win stages in all the Grand Tours.

Frederick Henry Grubb was a British road racing cyclist who competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics. He won silver medals in the individual road race and the team road race. In 1914, after he retired from racing, he established a bicycle manufacturing business (F.H.Grubb) in Brixton, London. By 1920 manufacturing had moved to Croydon and then in 1926 to Twickenham. In 1935 FHG Ltd was established in Wimbledon but by 1947 the F H Grubb name was back in use. Two years after his death the business was bought by Holdsworth, which used the Freddie Grubb brand until around 1978.

Peter Post Dutch racing cyclist

Peter Post was a Dutch professional cyclist whose career lasted from 1956 to 1972. Post competed in road and track racing. As a rider he is best remembered for Six-day racing, having competed in 155 races and won 65. Because of this success he was known as “De Keizer van de Zesdaagse” or “The Emperor of the Six Days”. In road racing his main achievements were winning the 1964 Paris–Roubaix and becoming national road race champion in 1963. He was on the podium three times at the La Flèche Wallonne but never won. Post’s other nickname was “de Lange” or “Big Man” because he was tall for a cyclist. After retiring from racing he had success as a Directeur sportif. Peter Post died in Amsterdam on 14 January 2011.

Dave Bedwell was one of Great Britain's most accomplished racing cyclists in the 1950s, known as the "Iron Man" of cycling. He won four stages in the first Tour of Britain, rode for Britain in the world professional road championship in 1953 and 1956 and rode for Britain in the Tour de France.

Paul Curran is a former professional English racing cyclist from Thornaby, Cleveland.

Colin Lewis is an ex-professional racing cyclist. He started racing at 19 and rode the Milk Race in 1960, finishing 7th.

Arthur Augustus Zimmerman American cyclist

Arthur Augustus Zimmerman was one of the world's greatest cycling sprint riders and winner of the first world championship in 1893. His prizes as an amateur were a consideration in the establishment of the International Cycling Association (ICA).

Charles William Messenger was a British cyclist, a former Milk Race organiser and British road team manager.

Arthur Stanley "Stan" Brittain was an English racing cyclist who rode time-trials, road races and the track. He won a silver medal at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic games, came third in the 1955 Peace Race and finished the 1958 Tour de France.

Vin Denson English racing cyclist

Vincent Denson is a former professional racing cyclist who rode the Tour de France, won a stage of the Giro d'Italia and won the Tour of Luxembourg in the 1960s.

Not to be very confused with Leslie West

Keith Butler was a British cycling champion who raced as a professional in Belgium and France and who later organised cycle races in England.

Geoff Wiles is an English former professional racing cyclist.

Ian Steel Scottish racing cyclist

John "Ian" Steel was a Scottish racing cyclist who in 1952 won the Peace Race, a central European race between Warsaw, Berlin and Prague. He was the only Briton, and the only rider from the English-speaking world to win it, as well as the first Briton to win any major race. He also won the Tour of Britain as a semi-professional and was at one stage second in the 1952 Tour of Mexico before crashing.

Mark Bell (cyclist) English racing cyclist

Mark Bell was an English professional cyclist from Birkenhead. He rode for Britain in the Olympic Games, won the national road championship as an amateur and then a professional and was the first foreigner to win the Étoile de Sud stage race in Belgium. He died at 49 after collapsing at his home in Bebington, Wirral. He had recently recovered from alcoholism.

References

  1. Cycling, 22 November 2003
  2. "1963 Milk Race winner Peter Chisman dies", Cycling News (7 November 2003).